Compromising

One would expect certain freedoms to be lost in situations where a protection detail is assigned by the Federation. Clubs and busy stations, for example, were off limits. In fact, any time Patty wanted to leave the various hotel rooms booked for him, he had to be escorted by at least two of the very tall, very strong bodyguards responsible for his safety.

He didn't mind. Even with the restrictions on where he could go, he hadn't seen this much of the system in over six years. He didn't like clubs, or anywhere particularly noisy anyway. He'd had enough of that on Europa. The occasional coffee shop was enough for him.

One of the bodyguards, Alistair, led the way into their newest hotel room, gesturing for Patty to wait while he searched for bombs and wires and stuff.

"All clear," he told them when he was done, "Mister Walters?"

Patty towed his small bag of clothes in, only to drop it when he spotted the small circular window on the other side of the room and raced over to it. The station they were staying at orbited Venus and this hotel room had a view of the stars and part of the station. Stargazing wasn't exactly a common pass-time for the people living under Europa's ice, so he saw them a lot more often now than he did a few months ago and they never failed to take his breath away, even framed by a hundred billboards advertising shit nobody needed. As he watched and the station rotated, the planet above came into view, an impossibly huge, yellowish wonder.

He turned to point it out for Alistair, only to realise that he had picked up his bag and was putting his clothes in the wardrobe.

"Hey!"

Alistair looked up.

"You don't have to do that," he signed frantically, hurrying over to him.

"It's okay, I wanted to let you have a minute," he explained.

"Well I've had my minute!" Patty told him before taking the shirt he was holding and folding it.

Alistair worked hard enough without being his maid. Unfortunately, he'd already put away most of Patty's personal belongings, two pairs of grey pants and a grey shirt, all given to him by the Federation after they'd raided the Europan Mafia base of operations and freed him. At least he hadn't made it to Patty's underwear.

Alistair left him alone and started unpacking his own clothes. They always shared rooms and Patty preferred it that way. They were probably decent enough people, but the other bodyguards reminded him of people from Europa, either because of their appearances or demeanours. They made him uneasy. He didn't think he'd be able to sleep with any of them in the room.

Patty went to his bed, the one furthest from the door, opened his backpack and took out the tablet Alistair had let him borrow after he swore on all their lives to only use it for reading and never post anything online. A news article caught his eye and he opened it, half watching Alistair unpack. He was also travelling light, but for him it was more of a professional thing. He probably had a wardrobe bursting with bright, colourful clothes at home.

Alistair shut the wardrobe and put their cases on top. He was so tall and strong, yet somehow unthreatening. He made Patty feel more safe than small.

"Did you know they can take cells and grow body parts for people who need new ones?" he signed to Alistair as he went to his bed, "Some people even have whole limbs replaced."

"I know a few people who had that done," Alistair told him, opening his briefcase and taking out his laptop, "It takes a while to get used to them, but once it's all healed you can walk and run like they're your original legs."

"I don't even need a whole leg," Patty commented, "I just wanna have a tongue again. It'd probably be a thousand times easier than a heart or something." He flopped back on the bed. "As soon as all the court bullshit's over I'm gonna see a doctor about it."

"Can't wait to be able to speak again?"

"And eat regular food. I haven't had sorbet in over six years." He gave Alistair a devilish grin. "And there's some other stuff I wanna do too."

That made Alistair smile. He was pretty when he smiled.

"What do you think you'll do after that?" Alistair asked.

Patty frowned. He'd thought about it a lot on Europa, what he'd do if he somehow escaped. He'd come up with all kinds of fantasies about travelling all over the system, seeing every moon around Jupiter, eating fruit at an orchard on Mars, even volunteering to clean up waste on Earth just to see the place his ancestors once lived.

Ironically, freedom seemed to have crushed his dreams somewhat. To do any of that he needed shit like money and travel visas. The federation were going to drop him off wherever he wanted, but after that he was on his own and he really didn't know what he'd actually do next.

"What will you do after this?" Patty returned.

"This is my last contract," Alistair told him, "I realised a while ago that I don't want to do this for the rest of my life, however long that will be given that I regularly put my life on the line. This contract will leave me with enough money to buy a nice house and retire and you'll never have to see me again."

Patty frowned. "Where will you live?"

Alistair smiled. "I don't know. I think I want to work at an orchard somewhere."

Maybe we could figure it out together was what Patty wanted to say, but he knew he shouldn't. It would make things awkward and Alistair might decide to have someone else take his place. He was too professional to stick with a contract when his interests were conflicted or whatever.

"That sounds nice," was what Patty actually said.

"Yeah."

They fell into silence, Alistair doing bodyguard stuff on his laptop, Patty pretending to read the book he downloaded for him. Maybe when it was all over and it didn't matter if Alistair was emotionally compromised Patty could say something. Confess his feelings. Tell him he didn't want to never see him again. Maybe not. It was fun to fantasise.